The new Konami is doing very well indeed

Konami is the not the Konami of old. The Japanese company has ditched Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and big-budget console video game development in general in favour of mobile games, casino machines and... gyms.

Fans of the likes of Castlevania and Silent Hill may lament this switch in focus, but the suits at the top of Konami towers laughing all the way to the bank.

That's because Konami's making a hell of a lot of profit - much more profit than it did in 2015 when it released Metal Gear Solid 5. In short, Konami's new way is working.

Konami reported a whopping 70 per cent jump in profits for the nine months ending 31st December 2016 versus the same period in 2015. What's key is this impressive profit boost comes despite revenue being down 8.5 per cent, which means Konami is a leaner, more profitable business in the post-Kojima Productions world.

Most of Konami's revenue comes from its Digital Entertainment segment, which is where console video games, if Konami had any, would pop up.

Konami highlighted a few mobile games that did well during the financial period, including Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (25m downloads) and JIKKYOU POWERFUL SOCCER (5m downloads), the latter of which you have to say while shouting. Both recorded the fastest pace of downloads among Konami games, the company said.

Also bundled in that segment are JIKKYOU PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU (29m downloads) and Professional Baseball Spirits A (7m downloads), which continue to perform well.